Remain Calm! Instagram Releases Monthly Active User Number

"We're still popular, we SWE--are you Snapchatting right now???"

When Instagram released its new terms of service back in December, users flipped their shit so hard that many of them swore they were giving up the service entirely. But anyone actually live up those promises? The New York Post said so. Based on stats from AppData, which only counts accounts linked to Facebook, the paper reported that daily active users had dropped from 16.4 million to 12.4 million as of December 29.

But those numbers got so much coverage that Instagram, which rarely pulls up the curtain, felt compelled to counter claims it’s hemorrhaging users. AllThingsD reports the company has added a number to the list of stats on its press page: 90 million monthly active users. Boo-yah?

The company also told the site that in fact users had jumped 10 percent from December to January and, for good measure, here’s Kevin Systrom in full CEO salesman mode:

“Instagram continues to see very strong growth around the world,” Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom told AllThingsD. “With many of the product and internationalization improvements we’ve made, we’ve been excited to see these efforts resonate with users globally.”

Omitted but implicit: “All is well! ALL IS WELL.” Don’t worry, everyone still wants to share selfies and brunch pics and vacation snaps, so keep posting away–you won’t end up that last loser posting away on a deserted social network.

again: How much is a user who only visits a service once a month really worth? Maybe AppData’s conclusion was B.S., but as ATD points outs out, it’s hard to evaluate the health of the service without some daily stats.

Concerns about the social media equivalent of a bank run might be well-founded. Has there ever been a group of humans as ready to flee en masse like a flock of startled starlings as social network users? One day you’re inspiring universally relatable slang like “Myspace angles,” the next you’re a synonym for Internet ghost town.